31 October, 2015

HalloQueen with Gunpowder Gelatine and Da Rods

Usually when I apologize for lack of posts due to being busy, I'm not typically as busy as I've been this time around! But thankfully I had a minute to breathe and rock out last night with Gunpowder Gelatine and Faces tribute band, Da Rods with my friend George (hi, George!)!

I was worried I wouldn't be able to make it to the gig at all because The Milky Way is a pain to get to from my area on public transportation. Unlike New York City, Boston's public transportation is not 24/7. Like, they only expanded their hours to 2am this past year or so..? I don't go out often enough to give exact dates. But anyway! It was a huge help and extra motivator to get to hang out with George. Even though I hate him a little bit because he saw Queen in Germany in 1986.

Anyway! Again! Da Rods kicked things off and killed it! I must confess that my Rod Stewart/Faces listening has been horrifically confined to one or two songs I hear on the radio sometimes. So they've done me a great service because now I'm looking up Faces on Spotify. And yes, they played Stay With Me, and it was glorious!

I've mentioned it in the past, but I feel compelled to note the difference in crowd energy compared to at Johnny D's. Not that it's bad at Johnny D's! It's just different at The Milky Way and I kind of wish that difference - whatever it is - was the standard in Greater Boston. (Seriously, Johnny D's, I love you and I'm in complete denial that you'll be closing next year)

Gunpowder Gelatine came on stage dressed up like the Radio Ga Ga video, and they've said that they never actually performed Radio Ga Ga before, but I'm really sure that they did the first time I saw them. I distinctly remember being excited to do the synchronized clapping... although I might have been only one of a few in the audience complying.

Their set was, as always, excellent, and their sound was super tight. Their unofficial cinematographer was in the audience, so hopefully he got some really great video that I can post here eventually. I'm always really excited when they perform I Want It All because the audience always responds even though it's a really obscure song in the US and not usually known by more casual Queen fans. They've also recently added Bicycle Race to their set. I'm not sure if I've noted that before because I've seen them a number of times and then never wind up writing about it. For instance, I saw them last time at Johnny D's on September 25th, and Queen played on Saturday Night Live on that day in 1982, so I thought that was really cool :-)

George has given me permission to post the pictures he took, because I've since given up trying to take pictures because they always look shitty - even with a digital camera.

You may have noticed that I keep my hair closely shaved these days. I'm starting to go bald and I'm leaning into it because a) I'm not bothered by it, and b) I don't think any other hairstyle will work without it looking like I'm in denial a la John Travolta.